GFP Commission holds March meeting; Accepting public comments on a variety of proposals

The South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GFP) Commission held their March meeting at the State Library in Pierre on March 5-6, 2026.

FINALIZATIONS

Iron Creek Lake No Wake Zone

The Commission created a “No Wake Zone” on Iron Creek Lake in Lawrence County. Iron Creek Lake is a 24-acre impoundment, and the no wake zone will address safety, user conflict, and shoreline erosion concerns.

Lake Albert Waterfowl Refuge

The Commission removed refuge status from Lake Albert Waterfowl Refuge.

The Lake Albert Waterfowl Refuge was comprised of private property owned by eight landowners. The landowners formally requested that their property be removed from the Waterfowl Refuge status and provided signed consents to remove their property. By removing the refuge status, landowner control over hunting access on their property will be restored.

Hunt for Habitat

The Commission modified the license packages available within the Hunt for Habitat raffle. The Hunt for Habitat raffle allows for up to ten big game licenses, and the package for 2026 will offer:

• 1 Custer State Park Trophy Bison;
• 1 Custer State Park Trophy Bison and Any White-tail Deer Package;
• 1 Any Deer (Statewide – excludes Custer State Park); and
• 3 Any Deer (Statewide – excludes Custer State Park) and Elk Package.

PROPOSALS

Application for License

The Commission proposed to allow a hunter to apply for a “Special Antelope” license as a choice in the first drawing for the antelope season. This proposed change would eliminate the separate drawing for “Special Antelope” and make it a unit in the antelope season drawing.

Deer Hunting Seasons

The Commission proposed several changes to deer seasons for 2026, including:

• Removing the license tag type specifications for antelope, deer, and landowner-on-own-land elk. Those tag types will then be designated in administrative actions;
• Making “Free antlerless whitetail” landowner-own-land licenses available in deer units where antlerless-only East River or West River Deer Season licenses are available;
• Changing archery and muzzleloader “any deer” licenses to “any buck” licenses; and
• Reducing licenses in some East River Deer Hunting units.

Elk Hunting Seasons

The Commission proposed several changes to elk hunting seasons for 2026, including:

• Modifying season structure and unit description of the Special Custer State Park Antlerless Elk hunting season;
• Creating a new prairie elk hunting unit (PRE-ERA) to include all counties east of the Missouri River, excluding the interior boundary of the Crow Creek Sioux Indian Reservation, with season dates from Sep. 1 – Dec. 31. This unit would have unlimited “any elk” licenses;
• Opening all prairie elk season units to landowner-own-land, resident only, antlerless elk licenses;
• Expanding season dates and license types for:

PRE-11B from Sep. 1 – Oct. 15 to Sep.1 – Dec. 31.

PRE-35A and PRE-35B from Sep. 15 – Dec. 31 to Sep. 1 – Dec. 31.

PRE – 49A from Sep. 15 – Oct. 31 and Dec. 1 – Dec. 31 to Sep. 1 – Dec. 31.

• Open the Special Custer State Park Antlerless Elk Hunting Season, with license numbers to be set at the April meeting; and
• There were no proposed changes to the Black Hill Firearm, Black Hills Archery, Custer State Park Firearm, or Custer State Park Early Archery Elk hunting seasons.

Tag allocations for all elk hunting seasons will be set during the April meeting.

Waterfowl Hunting Seasons

The Commission proposed to reduce the daily limit of Canada geese during the August Management Take and the Early Fall Canada Goose hunting seasons from 15 to 8 geese.

They also proposed to remove Brown, Edmunds, Faulk, McPherson, and Spink counties from the August Management Take unit.

There were no changes proposed to the Duck, Goose, Spring Light Goose, Youth, Non-resident Waterfowl, Crane or Tundra Swan hunting seasons.

Bighorn Sheep Hunting Season

GFP staff presented a recommendation to increase the number of bighorn sheep licenses from seven to eight. The commission is scheduled to take administrative action on the final license numbers for the Bighorn Sheep Seasons in April.

Public Comments Being Accepted

To hear the discussion on these proposals, audio from the meeting is available through South Dakota Public Broadcasting and will soon be available on the GFP website as part of the meeting archive.

To see these proposals in their entirety, visit gfp.sd.gov/commission/information.

To be included in the public record and to be considered by the Commission, comments must include a full name and city of residence and be submitted by 11:59 p.m. CDT on April 5.

The next GFP Commission meeting will be held in Pierre on April 9-10.